Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-05-09
THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE
MORMeNS.


Haefeli for The DEMOCRAT. As a matter
of course, with the instinct of an adyo-
cate of a damnable political policy, the
writer generally approves the still more
internal, if possible, practices and
methods OF an institution which
ignores every principle of law and
order, and resorts to reasonable and Sc
cretly violent means to accomplish its
ends. The profound ignorance of the
writer, of everything pertaining to Nor
monism is exceedingly amusing, and is,
in fact, the only thing in the translation
which renders it worthy of the space it is
accorded in our columns. The great
dynamiter seems to have conceived
the idea generally, that Mormon
ism is in direct antagonism to
everything which every good citizen
should uphold, and bases his encomiastic
remarks upon the principle of general
cussedness, without knowing anything
whatever of the particular system of in
fanny which he eulogizes. 1t will sur
prise most Utahans to learn that the
Mountain Meadow massacre occurred
prior to General Johnston's march to this
Territory and that the latter was ordered
to avenge the former. 1t is also bit of
history, never before published, that
the victims of the massacre were the
same people who had prosecuted the.
Mormons and expelled them from Nau-
VOC. That there is 40 poverty and no
classes among the Mormons is an
astounding assertion, which we imagine
the aristocrats of the church would hard
ly be pleased to acknowledge, especially
in regard to the "class" proposition.
That there is "no prostitution, ,libertinism,
fagrant crimes, no penal institutions, no
lunatic asylums, no suicides from
despair in Zion, is an extremely happy
condition Of 4hings, which only needs the
element of truth to render Utah the most
desirable place of residence, in a moral
point OF view, upon the face of the earth.
That the Mormon religion" processes
mo miracles, and nourishes no faith in
Them" that the church does not
pretend to deal in heavenly affairs.
but earthly ones, and that the voice of the
people is recognized as the word
. OF God: that Joseph Smith is not "di-
vinely worshipped," are all propositions
which would startle every good Saint out
OF his boots if proclaimed by a Bishop or
Elder from the pulpit OF Mormon tab
ernacle or Westinghouse. In short,
there is not line of truthful statement.
description, history or anything else in
the entire mess of hogwash, and we only
publish it as an illustration of how far
it is possible for an ignorant
writer to get away from the
truth, when attempting to handle sub
lect of which he knows no -o-~o7 -. -
does jackass @ - ----inoio Than
the commu,avUt euphony. This is what
The se+.nclistic idiot says:
rH-Tneyy :, Element of the Territory of Utah
aHesrtainly was an admirable piece of work
No other redemption of a desert has ever
been undertaken under such difficulties
and as successfully executed. There
then was no large river which might have
been damned off and canalized for the
irrigation of the sand and clay bottom.
The soil was thoroughly impregnated
with salt and nitre, so that all vegetation
was almost impossible. There was only
one large, and a few smaller creeks COM
ing down from the mountains, but giving
out shortly in the desert. OF rain, there
wasn't any, so to speak, much less dew,
and extremely little snow, They must
have been courageous hearts who hoped
here to establish home, and they must
have developed magnificent power of
labor.
To-day this forbidding desert is,
wherever water could be conducted,
a fertile field, nourishing nearly quarter
Of million people. The soil is being
irrigated upon steadily increasing
stretches and is now proving quite fer
tile. Now there is rain, though little,
also some dew; for the soil covered with
plants and shaded by the new trees, can
imbibe and condense the aerial moisture.
The water supply has 80 risen that the
Great Salt Lake, where all creeks empty,
has had its level raised By twenty feet.
The wood OF the mountains has been SO
forestally utilized that it is in a better
condition than it was by nature, and is
concentrating more depression of moisture
One of the difficulties of this gigantic
system was that the people (of Utah)
were compelled to manufacture all fancy
goods, or do without them, if the COM
monwealth, uniLnpeded by the outside
world, whom the Mormon people had
hated and sanguinarily prosecuted, were
to grow and strengthen up. But as soon
as the gold wealth of California was dis
covered and a stream of immigrants
came to Utah, the Mormons found, by
the sale OF victuals to the transients, a
means OF income and the funds to send
out missionaries and spread the Mormon
gospel; also to transport, free of cost, the
converts to Utah, upon a communistic
plan, and to provide for them land and
all other means of settlement. Only
once were transients, going to California,
overwhelmed murderously in a Mormon
colony and slaughtered. These were the
same people who had previously perse
cuted and expelled the Mormons from
Illinois.
The United States intended to
avenge this murder (the so-called Noun
tain Meadow massacre) and sent, in
1854, regular troop of 5000 men under
General Johnston against Utah. The
Mormons resisted SO successfully that
compromise had to be concluded with
them. The originators of the massacre
were given up and their Bishop Lee was
subsequently executed; but of the rest,
all the institutions of the Nor
mons remained intact After the
establishment of the first Pacific road
which led through Utah, it became
natural consequence for the Mormons, if
they desired to derive an advantage from
that commercial route, to tolerate the
setuemept of non-Mormons in the cities;
put they sold to them no land nor house
Iots. Now the Mormon Church grew
rilch, and obtained the means to extend
l1s converting arrangements on large
scale, and also to speculate in railroad
shares. Alter this the domain kept fill
ing up with converts from Europe and
from tho SOnfh oN %